STEM education has come to be a major thrust in recent years, but the diversity of STEM majors has not scaled with the opportunities. As the unmet job demand and projected growth are repeatedly touted for STEM careers, there remains a missing, yet very important piece to the puzzle, minorities.
For as much emphasis and funding as have gone into STEM initiatives, there has been a lack of buy-in by minorities. This may be partly due to relevance – do they see STEM fields as attractive – but it may also be due to exposure and whether they realize the opportunities exist. A number of programs have been operating to improve both, and a good example comes courtesy of a partnership between New Mexico State University and Howard University.
As described in an NMSU News article, the two schools will work together to, “improve retention and recruitment of under-represented minorities from community colleges into their engineering programs.” The goal, then, is to bring minority students into engineering through “nontraditional pathways.”
Although about half of black and Hispanic students aspire to post-graduate work after their two-year education, less than 5% of either demographic ever go on to do it. NMSU is designated as a Hispanic-serving Institution with half of their student population being Hispanic. Howard, a historically black university, has better than 90% African-American or African-Caribbean students. The two saw this as an opportunity.
The schools, despite their many differences, had some key aspects in common. Both were already involved with PACE (Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education) and with Engineering Pathways to Innovation.
PACE is an industry-led partnership which focuses on automotive specific engineering skillsets and interacts primarily with universities from which they recruit. The Pathways to Innovation Program is orchestrated by Epicenter with the goal to assist institutions in incorporating innovation and entrepreneurship in their undergraduate engineering curriculum through coursework as well as co- and extra-curricular offerings. (More about Epicenter can be found in this engineering.com Q&A).
Now they have engaged together in an NSF Broadening Participation in Engineering program. One of the features to attract and retain minority students is an immersive experience in engineering innovation and entrepreneurship to supplement the regular curriculum. This Lean LaunchPad model utilizes the experience of creating a business as a framework to explore and develop research and critical thinking skills.
The ultimate goal is to replicate the model at other institutions in order to attract more minorities and help them succeed. The interdisciplinary approach sounds quite promising to do so, and is an approach becoming more popular for all STEM majors, minority or not.
Image Sources: NMSU and Howard University